This is very reminiscent of traditional lasagnas, but of course, without the meat, cheese, and added salt and oil. Bottom line: it’s delicious! Instead of meat, I have used zucchini and mushrooms, and a great tofu blend to take the place of the ricotta. Lasagnas are a labor of love, for sure. But they are worth...

How might we reduce our exposure to pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables? What about staying away from imported produce? Well, it turns out domestic produce may be even worse, dispelling the notion that imported fruits and vegetables pose greater potential health risks to consumers.

Buying organic dramatically reduces dietary exposure to pesticides, but it does not eliminate the potential risk. Pesticide residues are detectable in about one in ten organic crop samples, due to cross-contamination from neighboring fields, the continued presence of very persistent pesticides like DDT in the soil, and accidental or fraudulent use.

By choosing organic, one hopes to shift exposures from a range of uncertain risk to more of a range of negligible risk, but even if all we had to eat were the most pesticide-laden of conventional produce, there is a clear consensus in the scientific community that the health benefits from consuming fruits and vegetables outweigh any potential risks from pesticide residues. And we can easily reduce whatever risk there is by rinsing our fruits and vegetables under running water.

There are, however, a plethora of products alleged by advertisers to reduce fruit and produce pesticide residues more effectively than water and touted to concerned consumers. For example, Procter & Gamble introduced a fruit and vegetable wash. As part of the introduction, T.G.I. Friday's jumped on board bragging on their menus that the cheese and bacon puddles they call potato skins were first washed with the new product. After all, it was proclaimed proven to be 98% more effective than water in removing pesticides.

So researchers put it to the test and it did no better than plain tap water.

Shortly thereafter Procter & Gamble discontinued the product, but numerous others took its place claiming their vegetable washes are three, four, five or even ten times more effective than water, to which a researcher replied, "That's mathematically impossible." If water removes 50%, you can't take off ten times more than 50%. They actually found water removed up to 80% of pesticide residues like the fungicide, Captan, for example. So, for veggie washes to brag they are three, four, five, ten times better than water is indeed mathematically questionable.

Other fruit and vegetable washes have since been put to the test. Researchers compared FIT Fruit & Vegetable Wash, Organiclean, Vegi-Clean, and dishwashing soap to just rinsing in plain tap water. 196 samples of lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes were tested, and researchers found little or no difference between just rinsing with tap water compared to any of the veggie washes (or the dish soap). They all just seemed like a waste of money. The researchers concluded that just the mechanical action of rubbing the produce under tap water seemed to do it, and that using detergents or fruit and vegetable washes do not enhance the removal of pesticide residues from produce above that of just rinsing with tap water alone.

That may not be saying much, though. Captan appears to be the exception. When plain water was tried against a half dozen other pesticides, less than half the residues were removed.

Fingernail polish works better, but the goal is to end up with a less toxic, not a more toxic tomato.

We need a straightforward, plausible, and safe method for enhanced pesticide removal. Is there anything we can add to the water to boost its pesticide-stripping abilities? Check out my video, How to Make Your Own Fruit & Vegetable Wash.

If you soak potatoes in water, between about 2% to 13% of the pesticides are removed, but a 5% acetic acid solution removes up to 100%. What's that? Plain white vinegar. But 5% is full strength.

What about diluted vinegar? Diluted vinegar only seemed marginally better than tap water for removing pesticide residues. Using full strength vinegar would get expensive, though. Thankfully there's something cheaper that works even better: salt water.

A 10% salt solution appears to work as good or better than full-strength vinegar. To make a 10% salt solution you just have to mix up about one-part salt to nine-parts water (though make sure to rinse all of the salt off before eating!).

There's not much you can do for the pesticides in animal products, though. The top sources of some pesticides are fruits and vegetables; but for other pesticides, it's dairy, eggs, and meat because the chemicals build up in fat. What do you do about pesticides in animal products? Hard boiling eggs appears to destroy more pesticides that scrambling, but for the pesticides that build up in the fat in fish or chicken, cooking can sometimes increase pesticide levels that obviously can't just wash off. In fact, washing meat, poultry, or eggs is considered one of the top ten dangerous food safety mistakes.

The most important reason to wash produce is to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Ironically, the food poisoning viruses may be found in the pesticides themselves. Check out my video Norovirus Food Poisoning from Pesticides.

How might we reduce our exposure to pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables? What about staying away from imported produce? Well, it turns out domestic produce may be even worse, dispelling the notion that imported fruits and vegetables pose greater potential health risks to consumers.

Buying organic dramatically reduces dietary exposure to pesticides, but it does not eliminate the potential risk. Pesticide residues are detectable in about one in ten organic crop samples, due to cross-contamination from neighboring fields, the continued presence of very persistent pesticides like DDT in the soil, and accidental or fraudulent use.

By choosing organic, one hopes to shift exposures from a range of uncertain risk to more of a range of negligible risk, but even if all we had to eat were the most pesticide-laden of conventional produce, there is a clear consensus in the scientific community that the health benefits from consuming fruits and vegetables outweigh any potential risks from pesticide residues. And we can easily reduce whatever risk there is by rinsing our fruits and vegetables under running water.

There are, however, a plethora of products alleged by advertisers to reduce fruit and produce pesticide residues more effectively than water and touted to concerned consumers. For example, Procter & Gamble introduced a fruit and vegetable wash. As part of the introduction, T.G.I. Friday's jumped on board bragging on their menus that the cheese and bacon puddles they call potato skins were first washed with the new product. After all, it was proclaimed proven to be 98% more effective than water in removing pesticides.

So researchers put it to the test and it did no better than plain tap water.

Shortly thereafter Procter & Gamble discontinued the product, but numerous others took its place claiming their vegetable washes are three, four, five or even ten times more effective than water, to which a researcher replied, "That's mathematically impossible." If water removes 50%, you can't take off ten times more than 50%. They actually found water removed up to 80% of pesticide residues like the fungicide, Captan, for example. So, for veggie washes to brag they are three, four, five, ten times better than water is indeed mathematically questionable.

Other fruit and vegetable washes have since been put to the test. Researchers compared FIT Fruit & Vegetable Wash, Organiclean, Vegi-Clean, and dishwashing soap to just rinsing in plain tap water. 196 samples of lettuce, strawberries, and tomatoes were tested, and researchers found little or no difference between just rinsing with tap water compared to any of the veggie washes (or the dish soap). They all just seemed like a waste of money. The researchers concluded that just the mechanical action of rubbing the produce under tap water seemed to do it, and that using detergents or fruit and vegetable washes do not enhance the removal of pesticide residues from produce above that of just rinsing with tap water alone.

That may not be saying much, though. Captan appears to be the exception. When plain water was tried against a half dozen other pesticides, less than half the residues were removed.

Fingernail polish works better, but the goal is to end up with a less toxic, not a more toxic tomato.

We need a straightforward, plausible, and safe method for enhanced pesticide removal. Is there anything we can add to the water to boost its pesticide-stripping abilities? Check out my video, How to Make Your Own Fruit & Vegetable Wash.

If you soak potatoes in water, between about 2% to 13% of the pesticides are removed, but a 5% acetic acid solution removes up to 100%. What's that? Plain white vinegar. But 5% is full strength.

What about diluted vinegar? Diluted vinegar only seemed marginally better than tap water for removing pesticide residues. Using full strength vinegar would get expensive, though. Thankfully there's something cheaper that works even better: salt water.

A 10% salt solution appears to work as good or better than full-strength vinegar. To make a 10% salt solution you just have to mix up about one-part salt to nine-parts water (though make sure to rinse all of the salt off before eating!).

There's not much you can do for the pesticides in animal products, though. The top sources of some pesticides are fruits and vegetables; but for other pesticides, it's dairy, eggs, and meat because the chemicals build up in fat. What do you do about pesticides in animal products? Hard boiling eggs appears to destroy more pesticides that scrambling, but for the pesticides that build up in the fat in fish or chicken, cooking can sometimes increase pesticide levels that obviously can't just wash off. In fact, washing meat, poultry, or eggs is considered one of the top ten dangerous food safety mistakes.

The most important reason to wash produce is to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Ironically, the food poisoning viruses may be found in the pesticides themselves. Check out my video Norovirus Food Poisoning from Pesticides.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rates of all of our top 10 killers have fallen or stabilized except for one, suicide. As shown in my video, Antioxidants & Depression, accumulating evidence indicates that free radicals may play important roles in the development of various neuropsychiatric disorders including major depression, a common cause of suicide.

In a study of nearly 300,000 Canadians, for example, greater fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with lower odds of depression, psychological distress, self-reported mood and anxiety disorders and poor perceived mental health. They conclude that since a healthy diet comprised of a high intake of fruits and vegetables is rich in anti-oxidants, it may consequently dampen the detrimental effects of oxidative stress on mental health.

But that study was based on asking how many fruits and veggies people ate. Maybe people were just telling the researchers what they thought they wanted to hear. What if you actually measure the levels of carotenoid phytonutrients in people's bloodstreams? The same relationship is found. Testing nearly 2000 people across the United States, researchers found that a higher total blood carotenoid level was indeed associated with a lower likelihood of elevated depressive symptoms, and there appeared to be a dose-response relationship, meaning the higher the levels, the better people felt.

Lycopene, the red pigment predominantly found in tomatoes (but also present in watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava and papaya) is the most powerful carotenoid antioxidant. In a test tube, it's about 100 times more effective at quenching free radicals than a more familiar antioxidant like vitamin E.

Do people who eat more tomatoes have less depression, then? Apparently so. A study of about a thousand older men and women found that those who ate the most tomato products had only about half the odds of depression. The researchers conclude that a tomato-rich diet may have a beneficial effect on the prevention of depressive symptoms.

Higher consumption of fruits and vegetables has been found to lead to a lower risk of developing depression, but if it's the antioxidants can't we just take an antioxidant pill? No.

Only food sources of antioxidants were protectively associated with depression. Not antioxidants from dietary supplements. Although plant foods and food-derived phytochemicals have been associated with health benefits, antioxidants from dietary supplements appear to be less beneficial and may, in fact, be detrimental to health. This may indicate that the form and delivery of the antioxidants are important. Alternatively, the observed associations may be due not to antioxidants but rather to other dietary factors, such as folate, that also occur in plant-rich diets.

In a study of thousands of middle-aged office workers, eating lots of processed food was found to be a risk factor for at least mild to moderate depression five years later, whereas a whole food pattern was found to be protective. Yes, it could be because of the high content of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables but could also be the folate in greens and beans, as some studies have suggested an increased risk of depression in folks who may not have been eating enough.

Low folate levels in the blood are associated with depression, but since most of the early studies were cross-sectional, meaning a snapshot in time, we didn't know if the low folate led to depression or the depression led to low folate. Maybe when you have the blues you don't want to eat the greens.

But since then a number of cohort studies were published, following people over time. They show that a low dietary intake of folate may indeed be a risk factor for severe depression, as much as a threefold higher risk. Note this is for dietary folate intake, not folic acid supplements; those with higher levels were actually eating healthy foods. If you give people folic acid pills they don't seem to work. This may be because folate is found in dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, whereas folic acid is the oxidized synthetic compound used in food fortification and dietary supplements because it's more shelf-stable. It may have different effects on the body as I previously explored in Can Folic Acid Be Harmful?

These kinds of findings point to the importance of antioxidant food sources rather than dietary supplements. But there was an interesting study giving people high dose vitamin C. In contrast to the placebo group, those given vitamin C experienced a decrease in depression scores and also greater FSI. What is FSI? Frequency of Sexual Intercourse.

Evidently, high dose vitamin C improves mood and intercourse frequency, but only in sexual partners that don't live with one another. In the placebo group, those not living together had sex about once a week, and those living together a little higher, once every five days, with no big change on vitamin C. But for those not living together, on vitamin C? Every other day! The differential effect for non-cohabitants suggests that the mechanism is not a peripheral one, meaning outside the brain, but a central one--some psychological change which motivates the person to venture forth to have intercourse. The mild antidepressant effect they found was unrelated to cohabitation or frequency, so it does not appear that the depression scores improved just because of the improved FSI.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rates of all of our top 10 killers have fallen or stabilized except for one, suicide. As shown in my video, Antioxidants & Depression, accumulating evidence indicates that free radicals may play important roles in the development of various neuropsychiatric disorders including major depression, a common cause of suicide.

In a study of nearly 300,000 Canadians, for example, greater fruit and vegetable consumption was associated with lower odds of depression, psychological distress, self-reported mood and anxiety disorders and poor perceived mental health. They conclude that since a healthy diet comprised of a high intake of fruits and vegetables is rich in anti-oxidants, it may consequently dampen the detrimental effects of oxidative stress on mental health.

But that study was based on asking how many fruits and veggies people ate. Maybe people were just telling the researchers what they thought they wanted to hear. What if you actually measure the levels of carotenoid phytonutrients in people's bloodstreams? The same relationship is found. Testing nearly 2000 people across the United States, researchers found that a higher total blood carotenoid level was indeed associated with a lower likelihood of elevated depressive symptoms, and there appeared to be a dose-response relationship, meaning the higher the levels, the better people felt.

Lycopene, the red pigment predominantly found in tomatoes (but also present in watermelon, pink grapefruit, guava and papaya) is the most powerful carotenoid antioxidant. In a test tube, it's about 100 times more effective at quenching free radicals than a more familiar antioxidant like vitamin E.

Do people who eat more tomatoes have less depression, then? Apparently so. A study of about a thousand older men and women found that those who ate the most tomato products had only about half the odds of depression. The researchers conclude that a tomato-rich diet may have a beneficial effect on the prevention of depressive symptoms.

Higher consumption of fruits and vegetables has been found to lead to a lower risk of developing depression, but if it's the antioxidants can't we just take an antioxidant pill? No.

Only food sources of antioxidants were protectively associated with depression. Not antioxidants from dietary supplements. Although plant foods and food-derived phytochemicals have been associated with health benefits, antioxidants from dietary supplements appear to be less beneficial and may, in fact, be detrimental to health. This may indicate that the form and delivery of the antioxidants are important. Alternatively, the observed associations may be due not to antioxidants but rather to other dietary factors, such as folate, that also occur in plant-rich diets.

In a study of thousands of middle-aged office workers, eating lots of processed food was found to be a risk factor for at least mild to moderate depression five years later, whereas a whole food pattern was found to be protective. Yes, it could be because of the high content of antioxidants in fruits and vegetables but could also be the folate in greens and beans, as some studies have suggested an increased risk of depression in folks who may not have been eating enough.

Low folate levels in the blood are associated with depression, but since most of the early studies were cross-sectional, meaning a snapshot in time, we didn't know if the low folate led to depression or the depression led to low folate. Maybe when you have the blues you don't want to eat the greens.

But since then a number of cohort studies were published, following people over time. They show that a low dietary intake of folate may indeed be a risk factor for severe depression, as much as a threefold higher risk. Note this is for dietary folate intake, not folic acid supplements; those with higher levels were actually eating healthy foods. If you give people folic acid pills they don't seem to work. This may be because folate is found in dark green leafy vegetables like spinach, whereas folic acid is the oxidized synthetic compound used in food fortification and dietary supplements because it's more shelf-stable. It may have different effects on the body as I previously explored in Can Folic Acid Be Harmful?

These kinds of findings point to the importance of antioxidant food sources rather than dietary supplements. But there was an interesting study giving people high dose vitamin C. In contrast to the placebo group, those given vitamin C experienced a decrease in depression scores and also greater FSI. What is FSI? Frequency of Sexual Intercourse.

Evidently, high dose vitamin C improves mood and intercourse frequency, but only in sexual partners that don't live with one another. In the placebo group, those not living together had sex about once a week, and those living together a little higher, once every five days, with no big change on vitamin C. But for those not living together, on vitamin C? Every other day! The differential effect for non-cohabitants suggests that the mechanism is not a peripheral one, meaning outside the brain, but a central one--some psychological change which motivates the person to venture forth to have intercourse. The mild antidepressant effect they found was unrelated to cohabitation or frequency, so it does not appear that the depression scores improved just because of the improved FSI.

A recent article in the journal, Meat Science, acknowledged that a sector of the population perceives meat as a food that is detrimental to their health because of studies associating meat consumption with heart disease and cancer. So, the article continues, meat consumers may look for healthier food alternatives as a means to maintain good health, which represents a good opportunity for the meat industry to develop some new products. The industry felt that natural foods could be added to meat to reach those health-oriented consumers by boosting antioxidants levels, for example. Foods like flax seeds and tomatoes are healthy, associated with reduced risks of cancer and cardiovascular disease. So by making flax-y tomato burgers, they figure they can reduce saturated fat intake and maybe eat less sugar somehow. Wouldn't it be easier to just cut out the middle-cow and eat flax seeds ourselves?

Flax seeds have been described as a "miraculous defense against some critical maladies." I'm a fan of flax, but this title seemed a bit over-exuberant; I figured something just got lost in translation, but then I found a prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, randomized trial--you know how hard that is in a nutrition study? For drugs, it's easy: you have two identical looking pills, one's active, one's placebo, and until the end of the study, neither the researcher nor the patient has any idea which is which, hence "double blind." But people tend to notice what they're eating. So how did they sneak a quarter cup of ground flax seeds into half of the people's diets without them knowing? They created all these various flax or placebo containing foods, and even added bran and molasses to match the color and texture, so it was all a big secret until six months later when they broke the code to see who ate which.

Why test it on hypertension? Because having a systolic blood pressure over 115--that's the top number--may be the single most important determinant for death in the world today. If you take a bunch of older folks, most of them on an array of blood pressure pills, and don't improve their diet at all, despite the drugs, they may start out on average hypertensive and stay hypertensive six months later. But those who were unknowingly eating ground flaxseeds every day, dropped their systolic blood pressure about ten points, and their diastolic, the lower number, by about seven points. That might not sound like a lot, but a drop like that could cut stroke risk 46 percent and heart disease 29 percent, and that ten point drop in the top number could have a similar effect on strokes and heart attacks. And for those that started out over 140, they got a 15-point drop.

In summary, flaxseed induced one of the most potent antihypertensive effects ever achieved by a dietary intervention. In other words, the magnitude of this decrease in blood pressure demonstrated by dietary flaxseed, is as good or better than other nutritional interventions and comparable to many drugs, which can have serious side effects. And they're not exaggerating about the comparable to drugs bit. The flax dropped systolic and diastolic up to 15 and 7. Compare that to powerful ACE inhibitors like Vasotec, which may only drop pressures five and two, and calcium channel blockers like Norvasc or Cardizem which drop pressures eight and three. Side effects of these drugs include a large list of serious medical issues, as seen in my video Flax Seeds for Hypertension, compared to the side effect of flax seeds, "its pleasant nutty flavor."

During the six-month trial there were strokes and heart attacks in both groups, though. Even if the flax seeds can cut risk in half, any avoidable risk is unacceptable. Isn't high blood pressure just inevitable as we get older? No - the prevalence of hypertension does increase dramatically with age, but not for everyone. People who eat more plant-based diets or keep their salt intake low enough tend not to exhibit any change in blood pressure with advancing age. It's always better to prevent the disease in the first place.

In the prevention of cardiovascular disease, the consumption of fruits and vegetables is crucial. Preventing the oxidation of cholesterol may be one of the mechanisms by which fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, hyperactivity of platelets is also critically important in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular disease, as I've covered before (See Inhibiting Platelet Aggregation with Berries).

In recent years, it has been shown that platelets are not only involved in the arterial clotting process, but also that they play an active role in the inflammatory process of atherosclerosis from childhood. By the end of our teens, atherosclerotic lesions are present in most people living in industrialized societies, and so suppressing the over-activity of platelets may be beneficial not only for heart disease, but for cancer, allergies, and diseases for which inflammation plays a major role.

The antioxidant properties of fruits and veggies are well known. However, their anti-clotting effects on platelets are less known. Preliminary studies have demonstrated the platelet activation suppressing activity of a variety of fruits and vegetables. They suppress platelet activation so well that they can actually mess up platelet function tests. And, the effects are so long-lasting that fasting the morning of your blood test may not be sufficient.

Out of 16 different fruits tested, tomatoes came out number one. The anti-platelet activation components in tomatoes are water soluble, so we don't have to eat them with fat; heat stable, meaning we can cook tomatoes without losing the benefits; and concentrated in the yellow fluid around the seeds. This is why tomato pomace beat out tomato juice, sauce, or ketchup. Pomace is basically the seeds and the peel, which the industry throws away, and it may be the healthiest part. And the more tomato seeds the better. But this study was measuring platelet activation in a petri dish. Grapefruit came in number two here, and grapefruit juice at least didn't appear to help when people actually drank it. Would drinking tomato juice actually help?

Platelets of patients with diabetes are characterized by intensified activation, so 20 diabetics were asked to drink a daily cup of tomato juice for three weeks or a tomato-flavored placebo beverage, and there was a significant drop in platelet activation.

A study done by the Rowett Research Institute, highlighted in my video, Inhibiting Platelet Activation with Tomato Seeds, found this works in healthy people as well. Within three hours of consumption, two tomatoes lowered platelet activation, and six tomatoes worked even better. Also, the effects were more wide-ranging than those of aspirin in that the tomatoes targeted multiple pathways of platelet activation.

About one in four people are aspirin resistant, meaning aspirin doesn't work to calm down their platelets, whereas only 3% of study subjects were found to be tomato resistant.

This finding indicates an advantage of the tomato extract's broad antiplatelet activity profile over single-target drugs such as aspirin. Also, when researchers stuck tubes into people while they were eating tomatoes, they found no changes in blood clotting times, implying that supplementation with tomatoes should not result in a prolonged bleeding times, so one might get the best of both worlds: less platelet activation without the bleeding risk. But if tomatoes don't thin our blood, do they work?

Researchers out of North Carolina State University report that, "consumption of tomato products has been found to be protectively correlated with a lower incidence of acute coronary events, less development of early atherosclerosis, and lower mortality from heart disease."

If you don't like tomatoes, kiwifruit recently beat them out in a test tube study of platelet activation. Strawberries may help too, but we have data showing kiwis may actually work in people, and two kiwis appeared to work just as well as three kiwis. It appears to work for green-on-the-inside kiwifruit; and for yellow-on-the-inside kiwifruit. In this case, though, one a day seemed to help whereas two-a-day did not, which seems a little strange. And there haven't been any studies to see if kiwifruit eaters actually have fewer strokes and heart attacks, so the best evidence for a dietary intervention to decrease platelet activation currently rests with tomatoes.

In my video Treating Asthma With Fruits and Vegetables, I highlighted a landmark study on manipulating antioxidant intake in asthma. The study found that just a few extra fruits and vegetables a day can powerfully reduce asthma exacerbation rates. If the antioxidants in the plants are ameliorating asthma, then why can't we take antioxidant pills instead? Because antioxidant pills don't appear to work.

Studies using antioxidant supplements on respiratory or allergic diseases have mostly shown no beneficial effects. This discrepancy between data relating to fruit and vegetable intake compared with those using antioxidant supplements may indicate the importance of the whole food, rather than individual components. For example, in the Harvard Nurse's Health Study, women who got the most vitamin E from their diet appeared to be at half the risk for asthma, (which may help explain why nut consumption is associated with significantly lower rates of wheezing), but vitamin E supplements did not appear to help.

Men who eat a lot of apples appear to have superior lung function, as do kids who eat fresh fruit every day, as measured by FEV1 (basically how much air you can forcibly blow out in one second). The more fruit, salad, and green vegetables kids ate, the greater their lung function appeared.

Researchers are "cautious about concluding which nutrient might be responsible." There's vitamin C in fruits, salads, and green vegetables, but there are lots of other antioxidants, such as "vitamin P," a term used to describe polyphenol phytonutrients found in grapes, flax seeds, beans, berries, broccoli, apples, citrus, herbs, tea, and soy. Polyphenol phytonutrients can directly bind to allergenic proteins and render them hypoallergenic, allowing them to slip under our body's radar. If this first line of defense fails, polyphenols can also inhibit the activation of the allergic response and prevent the ensuing inflammation, and so may not only work for prevention, but for treatment as well.

Most of the available evidence is weak, though, in terms of using supplements containing isolated phytonutrients to treat allergic diseases. We could just give people fruits and vegetables to eat, but then we couldn't perform a double-blind study to see if they work better than placebo. Some researchers decided to use pills containing plant food extracts. Plant extracts are kind of a middle ground. They are better than isolated plant chemicals, but are not as complete as whole foods. Still, since we can put whole foods in a capsule, we can compare the extracts to fake sugar pills that look and feel the same to see if they have an effect.

The first trial involved giving people extracts of apple skins. I've talked about the Japan's big cedar allergy problem before (See Alkylphenol Endocrine Disruptors and Allergies), so apple extract pills were given every day for a few months starting right before pollen season started. The results were pretty disappointing. They found maybe a little less sneezing, but the extract didn't seem to help their stuffy noses or itchy eyes.

What about a tomato extract? A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled eight-week trial was performed on perennial allergic rhinitis, this time not for seasonal pollen, but for year-round allergies to things like dust-mites. There are lots of drugs out there, but you may have to take them every day year-round, so how about some tomato pills instead? After oral administration of tomato extract for eight weeks, there was a significant improvement of total nasal symptom scores, combined sneezing, runny nose and nasal obstruction, with no apparent adverse effects.

Would whole tomatoes work even better? If only researchers would design an experiment directly comparing phytonutrient supplements to actual fruits and vegetables head-to-head against asthma, but such a study had never been done... until now. The same amazing study, highlighted in my video, Treating Asthma with Plants vs. Supplements?, that compared the seven-fruit-and-vegetables-a-day diet to the three-fruit-and-vegetables-a-day diet, after completion of its first phase, commenced a parallel, randomized, controlled supplementation trial with capsules of tomato extract, which boosted the power of five tomatoes in one little pill, and the study subjects were given three pills a day.

Who did better, the group that ate seven servings of actual fruits and vegetables a day, or the group that ate three servings a day but also took 15 supposed serving equivalents in pill form? The pills didn't help at all. Improvements in lung function and asthma control were evident only after increased fruit and vegetable intake, which suggests that whole-food interventions are most effective. Both the supplements and increased fruit and vegetable intake were effective methods for increasing carotenoid concentrations in the bloodstream, but who cares? Clinical improvements--getting better from disease--were evident only as a result of an increase in plant, not pill, consumption. The results provide further evidence that whole-food approaches should be used to achieve maximum efficacy of antioxidant interventions.

Tomatoes and rice are a famous combination, and are complemented nicely in this soup by white beans, greens, and fresh basil. This hearty Tomato Rice Soup can be a meal all on its own, or serve it with a side of homemade, oil-free corn chips. Print Tomato Rice Soup Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: ...

We all know exercise is beneficial to our health. Then why is it that ultramarathon runners may generate so many free radicals during a race that they can damage the DNA of a significant percentage of their cells? Researchers have looked at the exercise-induced increase in free radical production as a paradox: why would an apparently healthy act--exercise--lead to detrimental effects through damage to various molecules and tissues? This arises out of somewhat of a misunderstanding: exercise in and of itself is not necessarily the healthy act--it's the recovery after exercise that is so healthy, the whole "that-which-doesn't-kill-us-makes-us-stronger" notion. For example, exercise training has been shown to enhance antioxidant defenses by increasing the activities of our antioxidant enzymes. So, during the race ultra-marathoners may be taking hits to their DNA, but a week later they can experience great benefits, as shown in my video, Enhanced Athletic Recovery Without Undermining Adaptation.

In a recent study, researchers from Oregon State University looked at the level of DNA damage in athletes. Six days after a race, athletes didn't just go back to the baseline level of DNA damage, but had significantly less, presumably because they had revved up their antioxidant defenses. So, maybe exercise-induced oxidative damage is beneficial, similar to vaccination. By freaking out the body a little, we might induce a response that's favorable in the long run.

This concept, that low levels of a damaging entity can up-regulate protective mechanisms, is known as hormesis. For example, herbicides kill plants, but in tiny doses may actually boost plant growth, presumably by stressing the plant into rallying its resources to successfully fight back.

So in 1999, a theoretical concern was raised. Maybe all that free radical stress from exercise is a good thing, and increased consumption of some antioxidant nutrients might interfere with these necessary adaptive processes. If we decrease free radical tissue damage, maybe we won't get that increase in activity of those antioxidant enzymes.

A group of researchers who performed a study on tart cherry juice and recovery following a marathon responded to this antioxidant concern by suggesting that, although it is likely that muscle damage, inflammation, and oxidative stress are important factors in the adaptation process, minimizing these factors may improve recovery so we can train more and perform better. So, there are theories on both sides, but what happens when we actually put it to the test?

While antioxidant or anti-inflammatory supplements may prevent these adaptive events, researchers found that blackcurrant extract - although packed with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties - actually boosted the health benefits of regular exercise.

If we take antioxidant pills--vitamin C and vitamin E supplements-- we can also reduce the stress levels induced by exercise, but in doing so we block that boost in antioxidant enzyme activity caused by exercise. Now maybe we don't need that boost if we don't have as much damage, but vitamin C supplements seem to impair physical performance in the first place. With plant foods, though, we appear to get the best of both worlds.

For example, lemon verbena, an antioxidant-rich herbal tea, protects against oxidative damage and decreases the signs of muscular damage and inflammation, without blocking the cellular adaptation to exercise. In a recent study, researchers showed that lemon verbena does not affect the increase of the antioxidant enzyme response promoted by exercise. On the contrary: antioxidant enzyme activity was even higher in the lemon verbena group. In my video, Enhanced Athletic Recovery Without Undermining Adaptation, you can see the level of antioxidant enzyme activity before and after 21 days of intense running exercises in the control group. With all that free radical damage, the body started cranking up its antioxidant defenses. But give a dark green leafy tea, and not only do we put a kabosh on the damage due to all the phytonutrients and antioxidants, but we still get the boost in defenses--in fact, in this case, the boost was even greater.

Find out more on enhancing athletic recovery in this three-part video series: